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Thursday, July 19, 2012

Primer - low budget yet brilliantly made

What flashes through
our mind when we are asked to name a few science fiction films are the films
like Star Wars, Avatar, ect. Spaceships, laser guns, aliens and unimaginable
creatures, well constructed laboratories with all advanced technologies and equipments
fill the screen. Unlike the above, what we rarely have seen is the idea behind
these things. Primer is one such film. It is a science fiction story with a complex plot which
follows Abe and Aaron who work for a big corporation during daytime. They spend
their evenings in building and selling electronic spare parts to fund their pet
projects in a garage. When they attempt to build a machine, they accidentally invent a time
machine. It strongly implies that the idea behind most of the famous scientific
achievements used to be accidental and unexpected, like the discovery of time
travel in the film, in places as simple as a basement or a garage the main characters
use to work.

I must admit that Primer is a very brilliantly made movie. The
mastermind behind Primer is a debutant Shane Carruth, who has directed,
written, produced, composed, and edited the movie. Apart from that he also
acted in one of the main roles as Aaron. He deserves a pat on the back, and got it too, with awards at Sundance
and some other film fests. Rest of the cast is his friends and family mostly.
His experience as an engineer before taking up direction is visible all over
the movie. In addition he learned physics to make the dialogues sound
technically flawless. Initially while
watching, I had a thought of why these guys spend lot of money in making a
movie which is very hard to understand or even not at all. But a fascinating
aspect about the movie is that it was made out of a very low budget of just
7000 USD. Also the crew he employed comprised only half a dozen members.

It is one of the most confusing movies which simply leaves
one baffled,
not at the very end, even before one finishes watching it. A lot of
questions arise
like, what the hell has happened so far? Or what I have seen? Or what do
these
guys trying to tell? After second attempt, I was able to get it a little. May be one can master it after watching for few
more times. I prefer not to further emphasize about what the film mainly deals with, as it may blow out one's experience when watching the movie. Though
there is difficulty in following the film because of its complex plot and
narration, it still is one of the best made movies, and a must watch one for
movie enthusiasts and techie geeks. Lets get ready to time travel…!!!